What you just said is now my second favorite quote right after what you said about eating raw eggs. Saying it is irrelevant to your game is one thing, and no one can argue about that. However, saying they are not needed is ignorant. Since games on a single screen are not stereoscopic, you need extra visual cues to know placement in a 3D world. Place a guy on a flat land, and you don't know if he is floating above a point close to the camera, or standing on the surface far away. In space, I agree that they are not needed. However, it seems a lot of your game is also on the surface of a planet, where that example I just gave is very important. A simple blob shadow would not eat enough processor power to make people want to turn it off. Even Street Fighter 2 had one.

Mr. Smart, I would like to recommend one enhancement to you engine that is really necessary. Shadows. You don't have to be fancy, even dark circle on the ground will do. Shadows are an important visual cue that allows the brain to process depth better. I was looking at the pics of your games, and something just didn't seem right, and that was it.

I remember reading ages ago that the whole 'bitch' thing was a PR manuever, and not Romero's idea. Of course, I think I remember Romero writing this, so it could have just been an excuse. Either way, what ever happened to that Guantlet game he was making? So he founded another game studio. Perhaps he finally learned there is more money in producing than working.

People don't have to own the game to have a problem with it. Do you think people have to be alive during a certain historical event to have an oppinion about it? I was/am very interested in your games because A) There really is not any good space exploration games out there, and B) They sound huge. So, how am I supposed to determine if I should spend my money on it? First, I download the demo. Second, I read reviews about it. Third, I go to message boards where people have played it long hours and read what they have to say. I, me!, am your potential customer, and you dare say that nobody has a problem with it? Oh! you put the 'and' clause in there. It is great you are patching, but you must always be looking out for new customers, otherwise there is no growth.

What you need, sir, is a PR department, because here is one example of a lost sale. And remember, where there is one vocal person, there are hundreds more with the same oppinion. I agree with an earlier poster; your hack at patching is inconvience to the paying customer. What you must go through to convience the customer is moot to us, just do it.

I didn't say your 'type' of game keeps them from being big sellers, I said your design and implementation decisions do. For example, this patching thing everyone is bitching about. I have no problem about it, but many people do. Just look at this thread to see that. Just for another example, the biggest complaints in reviews about your games are the interfaces, followed by learning curves. People can get past learning curves, but interfaces are to stay. This is just a few examples of what I am referring to as your design and implementation choices. They are fine, and I not talking bad about them. Your choices, no big deal. Only it is fact these choices do not appeal to a large crowd, and when potential people try to tell you what needs to be improved, either nicely or vocally, you tend to just tell them shut up instead of listening to them, and trying to improve your system, which would bring in more players.

I always viewed Smart's games as aimed toward higher end users, i.e. people who enjoy 'mucking' around with notepad to get a patch. Since Smart develops his games this way, you either accept it and buy it, or leave it be. I believe Mr. Smart is fully aware that his design and implemenation decisions are what keeps his games from being bigger sellers. Maybe he is like Dave Chepel, and is afraid of success on some psychological level?

While living in Japan, I found the train drivers quite enjoyed their job. Big challenge to stop and go, and still make your deadlines. Of course, if they get 30 sec to a minute late, they are fined a grand. This is one reason that huge train accident occured. The driver had already been fined, and was going to loose his job if he was late again. Several of the passangers were also train drivers. Worried that they were going to be late, they walked the rest of the way to work not even trying to help the injured. Never the less, I still found Densha De Go pretty boring.

Sarcasm aside, I loved this game on PS2, but couldn't get into it because of all the graphics shortcuts they made to make it work on that old POS system. The environments are too interactive and dynamic for low memory systems. I am going to end up buying it again, just to play the real version. It also taught me not to buy ANY Rockstar games until they make the PC version.

People thought I was nuts when I used to talk about seeing this video. The big question is when this song was originally written. In the movie 'Boogie Nights', Mark's character sang this song when trying out his music career.